Palo Alto city manager selects new Chief Information Officer (CIO)

October 26, 2011 - 9:35 pm

Palo Alto, CA – [Press Release] After an extensive search for the leader of the City of Palo Alto’s Information Technology (IT) agency and the City’s technology initiatives, City Manager James Keene announced his selection of Jonathan Reichental (Ph.D), currently Chief Information Officer for O’Reilly Media, as the City’s new cabinet-level CIO. The search for a new CIO to lead the City’s restructured IT operations yielded 147 applicants. After an intense review process that involved Palo Alto technology company executives, peer CIOs and a number of City representatives, Keene selected Dr. Reichental.

“Jonathan was the clear frontrunner in our recruitment,” Keene said. “He brings a combination of creative and entrepreneurial drive and skills and a commitment to taking city government to the forefront of public technology and innovation, befitting Palo Alto, the heartbeat of Silicon Valley.”

Before joining O’Reilly Media, Dr. Reichental served as Director of IT Innovation for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Early in his career, Dr. Reichental served as a technology consultant with Avida consulting in Dublin, Ireland.

“To participate in a city that is the source of so much world recognized technology innovation and a city management team deeply committed to supporting technology innovation as a platform for more effective government and citizen engagement made this a highly compelling opportunity,” Dr. Reichental said. “Developing appropriate partnerships with Silicon Valley technology companies and beyond, and leveraging public sector advances such as open data and digital government, will be cornerstones of our approach.”

A passionate technologist and accomplished speaker on innovation, Dr. Reichental speaks publicly on a wide range of related subjects. He is interviewed often and has been featured on NPR, CNBC, Forbes, CIO magazine, InformationWeek and Computerworld. (See this link to his webpage www.reichental.com/ and follow Dr. Reichental on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Reichental.)

Stephen Cohen, Co-Founder of Palantir Technologies, served on the interview panel for the City’s new CIO and said this about Dr. Reichental, “Jonathan’s success as a technology leader in the private sector makes him the ideal ambassador to help Palo Alto’s startup community continue to thrive.”

“His role as CIO will extend beyond the IT Department into all matters tech and innovation related,” City Manager Keene added. “In fact, bringing on a CIO of Jonathan’s caliber also supports our economic development strategy of fostering continued growth in the strong technology sector in Palo Alto.”

Dr. Reichental will lead a staff of 30 with an annual combined operating and capital budget of nearly $14 million.